Brian O'Nolan was born into the family of a civil servant in County
Tyrone, Ireland, on 5 October 1911, the third of twelve children. After the
family settled in Dublin in 1923 Brian attended school there, entering
University College, Dublin in 1929. After receiving a B.A. degree (English,
Irish, and German) and later an M.A., O'Nolan began eighteen years' employment
in the Irish civil service in 1935. During the late 1930s he embarked on a
literary career, writing a bilingual column for the
Irish Times under the pseudonym Myles na
Gopaleen and publishing his first (and best-known) novel
At Swim-Two-Birds, in 1939 under the
pseudonym Flann O'Brien.

The outbreak of World War II drew attention away from what is arguably
O'Nolan's major literary achievement, but he continued his newspaper column and
wrote other novels:
An Beal Bocht (The Poor Mouth), The Hard Life, The
Dalkey Archive, and the posthumously-published
The Third Policeman, actually written in
1940. Additionally he wrote
Faustus Kelly and other dramatic pieces.

While O'Nolan had enjoyed a continuing reputation among educated Irish,
it was only upon the republication of
At Swim-Two-Birds in 1960 that his broader
fame began. A collection of his
Irish Times pieces (edited by his brother
Kevin O'Nolan) was published in 1968 as
The Best of Myles. Brian O'Nolan died in
Dublin on 1 April 1966.

The Brian O'Nolan materials at the HRC comprise two series, Works
(1934-1963) and Criticism (1989). The first of these, Works, embraces the
manuscripts of two of his five novels,
At Swim-Two-Birds and
The Dalkey Archive, together with manuscript
materials relating to his play
Faustus Kelly.

At Swim-Two-Birds is represented by two
typescript drafts. The first of these contains extensive marginalia and
holographic additions by the author. Thomas F. Shea, O'Nolan's biographer, has
suggested this draft “was most likely composed between 1934 and 1937.” The
second typescript bears a signed note by the author indicating it is “the
final version for Longmans Green,” typed in 1937. Accompanying
At Swim-Two-Birds are a group of clippings
relating to that novel's 1960 republication, together with a note from O'Nolan
to Niall Montgomery, dated 21 September 1960.

The Dalkey Archive exists here in four
drafts. The first, dated “November 1962... July 1963” is holographic; three
typescripts are dated August, September, and October 1963. The first of these
is identified as “first typescript,” while the second is described as
“first typescript drastically revised.” The last typescript is bound in
boards and dated October 1963 but otherwise unidentified as to priority.

O'Nolan's play
Faustus Kelly is represented by two
manuscripts (each contained in a ruled notebook), together with a number of
unbound leaves of dramatic writing for that 1943 play.

The second series, Criticism, is represented by a typescript draft of
Thomas F. Shea's
Flann O'Brien's Exhorbitant Novels, which
was published in 1992 by Bucknell University Press.